I would love seeing a film with Conan actually becoming King of Aquilonia. As I remember from the story he kills the evil former king on the front steps of the palace in view of everyone. That would be great on screen.

Boy, it doesn't get more promising than that! Now if they just commit to it...

I think there has to be a place for a fantasy movie with some bite to it. I know everyone wants to have the next Harry Potter or LOTR but it's not easy to pull it off. Maybe people are ready for something with a little edge. I hope so.

I would love seeing a film with Conan actually becoming King of Aquilonia. As I remember from the story he kills the evil former king on the front steps of the palace in view of everyone. That would be great on screen.

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I was intrigued by that last shot of Arnie at the end of the movies, bearded, older, sitting on a throne. I SO wish he'd made a King Conan film before he turned into the wussiest governor in the country.

I'm looking forward to this. I've enjoyed many of the Conan ripoff movies they've made over the years (i.e. The Chronicles of Riddick, The Scorpion King, etc.) but I never could get into the Schwarzenegger movies. They're way too slow for my taste.

Same here. For me, it's kind of like the first Tim Burton Batman movie. It's a fine movie, but it's a crappy Batman movie.

I feel the same way about Arnold as Conan. Great movie, poor adaptation.

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It's funny, when it comes to adaptations it seems that only extremely faithful adaptations are desirable. Most movies seem to be pre-judged on how faithful they are to the source material and deviation is generally seen as negative.

It's funny, when it comes to adaptations it seems that only extremely faithful adaptations are desirable. Most movies seem to be pre-judged on how faithful they are to the source material and deviation is generally seen as negative.

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What's funny about that?

Some source material is harder to make work on screen than other source material, which is why Blade Runner is so different from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. There are too many story threads that just wouldn't lend themselves to a movie (Mercerism, for example).

But in general... does it make sense for someone to say "We love this story! We love it so much we want to spend millions of dollars to make it something the people who know and love the story won't even recognize!"

The problem with Conan is that, thanks to the previous movies, millions of people think they know who Conan is and what he's about. They greatly outnumber the people who've actually read Robert E. Howard. Cynical as I am, it wouldn't surprise me if whoever makes the movie decides it's more important to stay consistent to the widespread but misguided notion that Conan's a bodybuilder with flashy sword moves in a generic fantasy world.

^^ I guess because it seems films are dismissed out of hand for their approach if they aren't faithful rather than how they work on their own.

For example, Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory often gets praised as superior for being closer to the source material rather than seriously considering if it's better than the prior film on its own merits. Similarly, his Batman is often shot down because it doesn't match up with the particulars of the comics.

I'm not saying I'm immune to it either but unlike say cover songs where an original approach is often praised it just seems that when it comes to movie adaptations people want to see exactly what they read on the screen. Perhaps it would be better to see how well it works as used in the film itself?